Jul 11 Where We EAT: Casa Manolo, Ses Salines.

We're here to tell you how we're on a mission to find you the best paella on the island of Mallorca! We have to tell you honestly how on our first attempt we failed. We came to Casa Manolo to try their fish stews and made the mistake not to call 24 hours in advance to order one and make a reservation. Complete amateur hour on our behalf, although the evening was not wasted and we discovered something great.Casa Manolo not only has the best name of restaurant for any fashion lover, ahem beautiful Spanish born shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, but also the original owner and my grandmother share the same beautiful name, Apolonia. A family run restaurant that prides itself on fresh seafood and just simply prepared. We decided to try everything in the mollusc family cooked with the greenest,freshest Olive Oil. Yeah, that's it! You are probably thinking, oh boring, all restaurants make these dishes, how were these special!!? Well for starters everything is cooked on the grill, or a la plancha and it's the Olive Oil that just brings out that natural briny, salty flavor. We ordered mussels, clams and an order of the berberechos. Those berberechos (cockles) were some of the best we have ever had. They were larger than the clams and you could taste how fresh they were, we ordered another large order to share and left with a new love of simply cooked molluscs. We will be back for the arròs de notari, which is their take on a paella but more stew like. Just remember to make reservations and order the rice dishes at least 24 hours in advance.